Casing for double-walled vacuum bottles



Jan. 21, 1930.

A. E". PAYSON ET AL CASING FOR DOUBLE WALLED VACUUM BOTTLES Filed March 12, 1928 Jim TTORNEY Patented Jan. 21, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE AURIN E. PAYSON AND vMINER P. WETMORE, F NORWICH, CONNECTICUT CASING FOR DOUBLE-WALLED VACUUM BOTTLES Application filed March 12, 1928. Serial 1 To.-260,867. 7

Our invention relates to the art of doublewalled vacuum bottles and its object is to provide a casing of novel construction for bottles of that type. It is well known that double-walled vacuum bottles of glass have very thin walls, especially bottles of the smaller size, and so it is necessary to enclose the bottle in a protective casing. Heretofore these casings have been made of sheet metal screwed together in sections, and a spring or other shock-absorbing member had to be interposed between the bottom of the casing and the rounded base of the bottle. These sheet metal casings are comparatively expensive and are easily dented.

The improved bottle casing of our invention is made of wood pulp or similar fibrous material molded into proper shape to contain a bottle. The pulp material is dyed a suitable color before molding, or the molded casing may be colored later as required. This pulp casing is first formed as a single piece comprising a main body section with a closed inverted bottom and a neck section terminat- 2 ing at the top in an inturned rim. To insert the bottle, the casing is severed a the base of the neck, so that the bottle can be set into the main body section with the rounded base of the bottle resting on the inverted bottom of the casing. The neck part of the casing is then slipped over the main body part, whereby the bottle is completely enclosed. The two sections of the assembled casing are held together in a tight frictional fit, requiring no separate fastening means. The bottle is firmly and safely supported in the casing without the need of additional cushioning devices heretofore employed, since the molded fibrous material is sufficiently yielding to act as a shock absorber. The important practical advantages of our new bottle casing are cheapness of manufacture, lightness of weight, freedom from denting, and its se'lfscushioning effect on the glass bottle.

In the accompanying drawings, which show a simple embodiment of our invention,

Fig. l is a longitudinal sectional view .of a molded pulp casing for a double-walled vac- ;uum bottle .of pint size; and

casing rial. The main body'section 10 of the casing has an inverted conical bottom 12, which is formed with a spherical recess 13 adapted to receive the roundedbase of a doublewa'lled vacuum bottle indicated by the dotted outline 14 in Fig. 2. The neck section 15 of molded casing comprises a cylindrical base portion 16, a converging shoulder portion 17, and a tapering top portion 18 which terminates in an inturned rim or flange 19 forming an opening 20. An annular head .or rib 21 is formed on the neck section 15 at a certain distance above the offset shoulder 22 which separates the neck section from the body section of the casing.

The one-piece casing above described is molded from wood pulp or other fibrous material in any practical way. For example, if wood pulp is used, it is made of about the consistency of glue and sucked or forced into a porous .mold against which the pulp adheres until a casing of the required thickness has been obtained. The mold is-thentaken apart and the molded casing is dried. l Ve mention this process merely as a suggestion and not as a limitation of our invention. Instead of wood pulp we may use textile fibers macerated to form .a pulp mixture similar to that used in the paper-making industry. At the present time, however, we prefer to use wood pulp, because-it is cheaper and has been found to produce a .casing of requisite strength and utility.

As seen in Fig. 1, it is impossibleto insert a bottle in the one-piece molded casing, and so it is necessary to cut the casing along the line 23 or thereabout. The bottle 14 is then inserted into the open body section 10 until the rounded base of the bottle rests in the spherical recess 13. The inverted cone-shaped bottom 12 provides an annular space 24 adapted to receive the projecting tip 25 which every double-walled vacuum bottle has. It is well known that these tips or tubulations are used to connect the space between the walls of the bottle toa vacuum pump.

After the bottle has been inserted in the main section of the casing, the neck part 15 is telescoped into the main section until the annular head 21 strikes the top 26 of the main section. The bead 21 thus performs two functions: it limits the inward movement of the neck 15, and at the same time it hides the joint between the two casing parts. As shown in Fig. 1, the diameter of the base section 16 of the neck is slightly smaller than the diameter of the cylindrical body section 10, so that the two parts slide into each other in a tight frictional fit, which is sufficient to hold them firmly together without the need of separate fastening means. The inwardly projecting edge of the offset shoulder 22 acts like a resilient ring that grips the inserted neck. Of course, if desired, an adhesive may be used to glue or cement the contacting surfaces of the parts 16 and 10, but we have found that these two parts are rigidly held together by frictional engagement alone.

hen the neck section 15 of the casing is properly inserted over the main body section 10, the converging shoulder 17 engages the shoulder of the bottle 1%, whereby the latter is firmly supported in the casing between the bottom 12 and the shoulder 17. The inturned rim 19 at the top of the casing is in contact with the mouth of the bottle, so that no liquid can get into the casing.

The tapering portion 18 of the neck section 15 is adapted to support a cup 27 by frie tional contact. This cup is preferably formed of thin light metal, like aluminum. The tapering portion 18 0f the neck has sufficient inherent resiliency to hold the cup against fallin off in the ordinary handling of the bottle.

In metal casings heretofore used for doublewalled vacuum bottles of glass, it was necessary to use some shock-absorbing device in the casing, so as to prevent the thin frail walls of the bottle from breaking when the casing was dropped or otherwise subjected to a sudden shock. In using the molded fibrous casing of our invention, no separate shock-absorbing means is necessary, because the librous material of the casing is smficiently resilient or yieldable to take up any sudden shocks to which the bottle is subjected. In other words, the recessed inverted bottom 12 and the converging shoulder 17 of the neck act like yieldable supports for the bottle. lVhen the casing is upright, the inverted bottom 12 acts like a resilient support for the glass bottle; when the casing is horizontal, the shoulder 17 and bottom 12 resiliently hold the bottle against lateral shocks.

Other practical advantages of our invention reside in the cheapness and lightness of the casing. The metal casings of the prior art are comparatively expensive and heav The molded fibrous casing of our invention costs only about one-fourth of the cost of a metal casing for the same-sized bottle, and its weight is considerably less. Then, again, metal casings must be enameled or painted for the market, and the color is liable to chip off, especially when the casing becomes dented, as frequently happens. In our new form of casing, the color or dye may be added to the pulp before the molding process, so that the finished product is colored throughout and not merely on its surface. Of course, the casing can be painted after it has been molded and dried, and the paint will sink into the fibrous material sufiiciently to form a permanent coating that will not chip or peel off. Furthermore, our new molded casing cannot be dented like a sheet metal casing, and it is therefore not so easily marred in ordinary handling.

Although we have shown and described a specific construction, we want it understood that we have done so merely by way of example and not as a restriction of our invention. The precise shape of the molded casing will depend upon the shape of the bottle to be enclosed. Instead of having the neck portion 16 of smaller diameter than the main body section 10, these parts may be so proportioned that the neck slides over the body. This and other modifications are Within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim as our invention:

1. A bottle casing of molded fibrous material having an integral shoulder near the top to engage the enclosed bottle directly and having an integral inverted bottom provided with a central recess in which the base of the bottle rests, said inverted bottom forming a resilient support for the bottle.

2. A casing of molded fibrous material consisting of two telescoping sections adapted to enclose a double-walled vacuum bottle of glass and hold it firmly in place, said telescoping sect-ions comprising a one-piece cylindrical bottom section and a onepiece top section shorter than the bottom section, said top section being tapered and having an opening to receive the rim of the bottle in a tight fit, said molded fibrous material being sufficiently yieldable to act as a shock absorber for the bottle.

3. A casing of molded wood pulp consisting-of two telescoping sections shaped to enclose a double-walled vacuum bottle of glass and hold it firmly in place, said telescoping sections comprising a one-piece cylindrical bottom section and a one-piece top section shorter than the bottom section, said top section being tapered and having an opening to receive the rim of the bottle in a tight fit, the neck section of said casing being tapered to support a cup removably by frictional contact.

4. As a new article of manufacture, a onepiece bottle casing of molded wood pulp having a neck section adapted to be cut off and telescoped on the body section of the casing after a bottle has been inserted into the body section, the casing being shaped to hold a bottle firmly in place.

5. A bottle casing of molded fibrous material having an inverted cone-shaped bottom with a central spherical recess to receive the rounded base of a double-walled vacuum bottle, the projecting tip of the bottle being accommodated in the space between the inverted bottom and the outer wall of the casing.

6. A casing for double-walled vacuum bottles of thin glass, said casing being made of molded wood pulp and consisting of two telescoping sections in which a bottle is firmly held, said casing being sufliciently yieldable at the points where it engages the bottle to act as a shock absorber for the glass walls of the bottle.

7. A bottle casing formed of molded fibrous material and consisting of two telescoped sections, a main body section for receiving a bottle and a neck section adapted to be fitted into the body section after the bottle has been inserted, said body section and neck section having portions arranged to engage the bottle and hold it firmly in place.

8. A bottle casing of molded wood pulp comprising a cylindrical body section and a tapering neck section, said body section having an integral inverted bottom on which the base of the enclosed bottle rests, whereby said bottom forms a resilient support for the bottle, said tapering neck section having a resilient annular shoulder directly engaging the neck portion of the bottle, so that the bottle is resiliently held by said shoulder against lateral shocks.

9. The method of enclosing a bottle in a casing, which consists in preparing a onepiece casing of molded fibrous material, said casing consisting of a body section and a neck section separated by an inturned shoulder, whereby the neck section is of difierent diameter than the-body section, cutting said casing at said shoulder to sever the neck from the body, inserting a bottle into the open body section, and fitting one of said sections into the other section, the two sections being rigid 1y connected by frictional contact and so V shaped as to hold the bottle firmly in place.

10. As a new article of manufacture, a one-piece bottle casing of molded fibrous material consisting of a main body section and a converging neck section, said body section having an inverted bottom with a central spherical depression, said neck section hav ing an outer annular bead and terminating at the top in an inturned flange or rim, the two sections of the casing being adapted to be severed transversely along a line below said head to permit telescoping of the neck section into the body section until said bead strikes the upper end of the body section.

11. A double-walled vacuum bottle of glass enclosed in a casing of molded fibrous material, said casing comprising a cylindrical section and a neck section frictionally fitted by telescoping engagement, means on one of said sections to limit the telescoping movement of the neck section into the body section, an inverted bottom on said body section shaped to receive the rounded base of the bottle, said inverted bottom providing a space for the projecting tip on the base of the bottle, a shoulder formed on said neck section to engage the bottle, so that the latter is firmly held in place by said inverted bottom and said shoulder, said neck section having a tapering upper end which terminates in an inturned rim adapted to surround the mouth of the bottle, and a cup frictionally mounted on the tapering portion of the casing neck.

12. A double-walled vacuum bottle of glass enclosed in a casing of molded wood pulp, said casing comprising a cylindrical body section and a neck section which fits tightly into the body section by telescoping engagement, an outer annular bead on said neck section to limit its telescoping movement into the body section, said body section having an inverted cone-shaped bottom with a central spherical recess adapted to receive the rounded base of the bottle, said inverted cone-shaped bottom providing an annular space for the projecting tip on the base of the bottle, a shoulder formed on said neck section to engage the bottle, whereby the latter is firmly held in place by said inverted bottom and said shoulder, said neck section having a tapering upper end which termi- .nates in an inturned rim adapted to surround the mouth of the bottle, and a cup frictionally mounted on the tapering portion of the neck section.

AURIN E. PAYSON. MINER P. WETMORE. 

